Sony gives you more ways to enjoy High-Resolution Audio on the move

High-Resolution Audio brings you closer to the spirit and soul of the artist’s original performance – just as you’d hear it on stage or in the recording studio. Now Sony offers an expanded range of options for enjoying pristine Hi-Res sound at home, on holiday or the daily commute.

Packing audiophile performance into a pocket-sized player, the Walkman® A15 sets an exciting new benchmark in sound and style. It is joined by a choice of Hi-Res headphones and a new headphone amplifier to wrap you in a sumptuous listening experience.

Walkman A15

The world’s smallest and lightest High-Resolution Audio digital music player[i], the exquisitely styled Walkman NWZ-A15 immerses you in a world of vivid, richly detailed sound.

Bringing true audiophile credentials to portable High-Resolution Audio players, Walkman A15 showcases Sony’s unique S-Master HX™ digital amplifier. This advanced technology accurately processes huge amounts of wide-bandwidth audio data while minimising noise and distortion. It also allows up to 30 hours battery life while enjoying Hi-Res sources or an even longer 50 hours listening time with MP3.

Walkman A15 borrows details you’d expect from top-end hi-fi components, like high-purity lead-free solder that’s used extensively within the player for finely-detailed sound with balanced lows, mids and highs. In addition, the power supply line strengthened by thickened wires offers reduced impedance, reducing distortion and ensuring deep, resounding bass. The extremely rigid aluminium die-cast chassis further reduces electrical noise and stabilises sound reproduction. And instead of conventional ceramic capacitors, a high-grade POSCAP[ii] capacitor is used as the charge pump for the S-Master HX™ digital amplifier to minimise noise and distortion even further.

Even if you’re listening to lower-bitrate CD recordings or heavily compressed MP3 files, DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) HX™ technology upscales the quality of compressed sound sources to surpass CD quality by intelligently recreating lost high-frequency information. You’ll be rewarded by near-High Resolution clarity for your whole music collection.

There’s plenty of space to satisfy voracious music lovers. 16GB internal memory can be increased via the microSD memory card slot to accommodate extensive Hi-Res audio libraries.

MDR-Z7 High-Resolution Audio headphones

Now there are premium quality headphones that are a true match for today’s finest High-Resolution Audio sources. The headband-type MDR-Z7 elevates your listening experience to new levels of detail and emotional involvement, with an uncompromising design philosophy that makes extensive use of advanced materials.

A newly-developed 70mm HD driver unit completely envelops the listener’s ear, revealing every music nuance with startling integrity – from powerful sub-bass lows to crystalline highs. Critical high frequencies are faithfully reproduced right up to 100 kHz, delivering a transparent sound with all the harmonic detail of a live performance.

Whether you’re enjoying a string quartet or crunching rock, aluminium-coated Liquid Crystal Polymer diaphragms minimise colouration right across the audio spectrum.

Even the most demanding bass-lines are reproduced with effortless pace and rhythm, thanks to Sony’s Beat Response Control that vents airflow to optimise free diaphragm movement.

Peerless audio is complemented by a comfortable listener experience. Large, pressure-relieving ear cushions employ urethane for a combination of excellent isolation and maximum wear comfort.

As a further refinement, the headphones cable’s 4-wire structure uses separated ground cables to minimise crosstalk between left/right channels and supports the balanced audio output. Supplementing the normal detachable cable, an additional cable supports direct connection to devices with a balanced audio output such as the new PHA-3AC headphone amplifier. In addition; Silver-coated OFC（Oxygen Free Copper）cable strands reduce signal transmission loss.

Perfect for Hi-Res listening on the go, the MDR-1A headphones share many innovative features with the MDR-Z7, including Aluminium-Coated LCP diaphragms in its 40mmHD driver units and silver-coated OFC cabling with separated ground conductors.

PHA-3AC High Resolution Audio headphone amplifier and MDR-1ADAC headphones

Reveal new levels of detail and transparency when you’re listening to High-Resolution Audio files stored on your PC, smartphone, tablet or music player.

The PHA-3AC headphone amplifier converts Hi-Res signals (PCM 384 kHz/32 bit and DSD) from your device’s digital output for you to enjoy through headphones such as the new MDR-Z7. High-end D/A conversion technology ensures a remarkably spacious, three-dimensional soundstage with superb channel separation. Perfect for home usage, the amplifier’s balanced output can directly drive the MDR-Z7 for an absolutely uncompromised signal chain – right to your ears.

Also available, and designed for both home and mobile usage, the MDR-1ADAC headphones incorporate an integrated D/A convertor that’s capable of accepting Hi-Res signals up to 192 kHz/24 bit or DSD 2.8MHz/5.6MHz. Auto input selection allows easy connection with a wide range of portable devices, including compatible Walkman and Xperia models, PCs, iPod, iPad and iPhone (via Lightning Digital AV Adapter). Sony’s S-Master HX digital amplifier helps maintain absolute signal purity, and convenient USB battery charging allows up to 7.5 hours of High-Resolution listening.

The Walkman NWZ-A15 High-Resolution Audio player, MDR-Z7 headphones, MDR-1A headphones, MDR-1ADAC, and PHA-3AC headphone amplifier from Sony are available in UK from October 2014.

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For more information, please contact the Sony Sound team on sonysound@hopeandglorypr.com / 020 7014 5304 or call the general switchboard and ask for a member of the team on 020 7566 9747

For more information on all Sony press materials including the latest at IFA, please see the new Press Centre: http://presscentre.sony.co.uk/

Technical specifications

[i] Based on volume ratio. As of August 2014, according to research by Sony.

[ii] POSCAP is the registered trademark of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.

[iii] Copyright protected AAC-LC files cannot be played back

[iv] Copyright protected WMA files cannot be played back.

[v] MP3 128kbps (Bluetooth OFF)

[vi] FLAC 192kHz/24bit (Bluetooth OFF)

[vii] Headphone is not included